What do you do when God doesn’t show up the way you thought he would?

It’s a question we all have to deal with at some point in our lives. Things don’t go according to plan and we find ourselves turning to Plan B.

In a new book titled, Plan B, pastor and author, Pete Wilson, uses stories from real life Plan B situations along with stories from the Bible to offer hope and guide readers through tragedies, shattered dreams, and times of loss.

The same authenticity, humility, and honesty that so many appreciate from Pete’s popular blog, WithoutWax.tv, and his daily presence on Twitter (@pwilson) will make this book appealing to many readers.

I loved how Pete offers hope and encouragement to readers while being very honest that he doesn’t have all the answers.

In this life, many of your questions will simply not have answers. But through it all, God himself will never change.

When people ask me how they can know God’s will for their lives, I tell them the best first step is to know God. Beyond that I really don’t have any steps.

I also appreciated how Pete shared some difficult truths that I needed to hear.

Here’s the truth-and this one is thoroughly biblical: throughout life you will face one situation after another that will be completely beyond what you can handle.

I think this is a difficult truth to grasp, but God loves you enough to strip you of anything that keeps you from him.

I enjoyed and laughed at some of the personal stories that Pete shared about life with his 3 boys. Perhaps because I have 3 boys of my own and I have experienced similar adventures.

There are many things to love about this book: the comforting tone, the touching stories, the authenticity of the author, the way it points people to Jesus…..but the best part of the book may not be the content, but the timing…God’s perfect timing. Plan B released to the public on the very same day that many in Pastor Pete’s very own church community enter their very own Plan B situations after experiencing great loss from a major flood disaster in the Nashville area. I think the update and photo that Pete posted to Twitter this evening says it best…

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

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In his latest book, Primal: A Quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity, Mark Batterson explores the Great Commandment….

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.

Mark 12:30 (NIV)

Mark describes his latest work as……

a reimagination of the four primal elements detailed by Jesus in the Great Commandment:

The heart of Christianity is primal compassion.

The soul of Christianity is primal wonder.

The mind of Christianity is primal curiosity.

And the strength of Christianity is primal energy.

He challenges us to be great at the Great Commandment by using a mix of……

• fresh looks at Bible stories
• interesting tidbits of history
• personal stories from Mark’s life and the life of National Community Church
• terminology and concepts from the world of science

And just like his other books, In a Pit With a Lion on a Snowy Day and Wild Goose Chase, and his blog, evotional.com, Mark fills the pages with simple yet powerful and memorable one-liners and short paragraphs. Here are a few that I highlighted:

If you are a follower of Christ, then you have been drafted into an army of compassion that knows no enemy but those things that break the heart of God.

Faith equals God-ordained risks in the face of fear. Obedience equals God-honoring decisions in the face of temptation. And compassion equals Spirit-prompted generosity in the face of greed.

The blessings of God are always a means to an end. And the end is blessing others. We are blessed to bless..

One of the great mistakes we’ve made in modern Christianity is approaching God deductively as an object of knowledge instead of approaching Him inductively as the cause of wonder.

The Bible is the place where God bares His soul….The quest for the lost soul of Christianity always leads us back to the Bible.

Loving God with all your mind means making the most of your mind by learning as much as you can about as much as you can.

…the god who conveniently fits within the confines of your mind will never fill the soul with wonder.

There should be no disconnect between spiritual and intellectual pursuits. The mind and soul are not enemies. They are allies.

Christianity was never intended to be a noun. And when we turn it into a noun, it becomes a turnoff. Christianity was always intended to be a verb. We’ve got to act on God ideas.

Vision is the cure for sin. A God-given vision keeps us from decay and disorder. It energizes everything we do. And turning that vision into reality is one way we love God with all our strength.

If you are looking to “reignite a primal faith’” and “rediscover the compassion, wonder, curiosity, and energy that turned the world upside down two thousand years ago”, then this book is for you.

Order a copy here.

This book was provided for review by the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group.

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We are in the middle of a series at church called, Tightrope – Living in the Tension. This weekend’s message focused on the tension between strength and weakness.

Pastor Kerry used 2 Corinthians 12:7 – 10 where Paul describes one of his own weaknesses or “thorn in his flesh”.

Thought I would share a few of my notes from the message…….

• Your greatest weakness might just be your greatest gift.

• If you want to impress people, impress them with your strengths. If you want to influence people, influence them by admitting your weaknesses.

• A weakness is a gift because it……

• builds my character

• removes my complacency

• increases my compassion

• gives God credit

• God’s power works best in weak people.

• It is not about your weakness, it is about God’s greatness.

• Sometimes it takes God being all you have for you to realize he is all you need.

• Instead of focusing on how ordinary you are, focus on how extraordinary He is.

• Focus not on the giant of your problem, but on the greatness of your God.

• Your weakness doesn’t determine your worth.

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The story of Matt Mullenweg is an interesting one. He is the founding developer of Wordpress, the popular open-source blogging software. At the age of only 25, he has already been named as as one of PC World’s Top 50 People on the Web and Business Week’s 25 Most Influential People on the Web.

Matt blogs at ma.tt and his latest post starts like this….

I often get asked something along the line of, “If you weren’t leading Automattic, what would you work on?” There’s not a single answer to this question; the answer changes day to day. But I think if you asked me today, I’d say I would like to start a bank.

He goes on to explain what kind of bank he would start….and it’s nothing like the bank you currently use. Go read the blog post here.

I can’t wait until this type of fresh thinking, creativity, innovation, common sense, and focus on the customer invade and disrupt all of our traditional industries like banking, auto, airline, real estate, etc.

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“We train people to think about improvement all of the time, to have what I call a culture of creative dissatisfaction with the status quo.”  - Ananth Krishnan, Chief Technology Officer, Tata Consultancy Services [Business Week, How To Build A Culture of Innovation]

Creative dissatisfaction….I like that term.

Employers are always so worried about the satisfaction of their employees. They conduct survey after survey to measure the dissatisfaction. Employee dissatisfaction is seen as a liability.

What if employers changed their perspective and viewed their employee dissatisfaction as an asset? An asset to be used as fuel to drive significant, creative, innovative, positive change.

What if employers said to employees?…….

We recognize that you aren’t satisfied with the way things are. Neither are we. Our mission is not yet accomplished. Our vision is not yet achieved. We want a culture of creative dissatisfaction with the status quo. We want to hear your ideas on how to move forward. Where creativity, innovation, and change are needed, we want you to have the freedom and power to create, innovate, and change.”

Listening to ideas and giving employees the freedom and power to create, innovate, and change are key. Without that, then your employee dissatisfaction is, well, just a liability.

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